honestly, I'd might actually see Mirror Episode 9 (as opposed to the IRL one, which I never felt the need to subject myself with)
Darkened Stars: The Other Side of the Mirror
- Thread starter Vaermina
- Start date
honestly, I'd might actually see Mirror Episode 9 (as opposed to the IRL one, which I never felt the need to subject myself with)
Darkened Stars - Chapter 12
- Location
- Oblivion
Darkened Stars - Chapter 12
Stardate 29363.3 - May 12, 2352 - 23:13:00
Stardate 29363.3 - May 12, 2352 - 23:13:00
Having been a big fan of Lower Decks, the family name Tendi was instantly recognizable to Rain. But of course, things could never be as simple as they appeared on the surface, as it was not a member of the Prime universe Tendi family that she was dealing with, but a member of the Mirror universe one.
Which should mean that most of the Tendi family here would be considered good people, because the Tendi family of the Prime universe had been mostly on the pirate spectrum of the morality slider.
Except of course that things hadn't ever really been shown as being that simple. Prime universe Kira Nerys had been a freedom fighter perfectly willing to kill innocents, while her Mirror universe counterpart had been a giant narcissist who was also perfectly willing to kill innocents.
And that level of obscure mirroring had held true for the majority of people in the Deep Space Nine mirror universe episodes. From Smiley O'Brien who had been almost exactly the same outside of life experience, to Ezri who had just been kind of slutty and easily led around.
So while she was almost certain there had to be some mirroring at play with the Tendi family, she had absolutely no idea what it might be, or how it might manifest.
"I'd like to arrange passage off of Terra to Orion." Rain told Nezia as the woman began to look impatient at the Asari's mental dithering.
Not the best choice of drop off locations, but she needed somewhere their ship was likely to already be traveling in the general direction of, and anywhere was better than Terra.
"Sorry kid." Nezia said with an amused chuckle. "But we don't do passenger services."
"Not even if I can get your ship past the lockdown?" Rain dangeled enticingly.
Nezia's shoulders twitched ever so slightly at that, the movement telling enough to Rain that she knew her offer at least had the Orion captain's interest.
"If you could do that there might be a deal to make." Nezia offered with a cautious tone in her voice.
"The head of my house was recently murdered." Rain explained since the truth was exactly what was needed in this circumstance. "Those attempting to fulfill a blood oath of vengeance under such circumstances are allowed to pass through most lockdowns while in pursuit of it."
Nezia looked doubtful at that, a feeling Rain supposed was fair to have given the extremes allowed of the blood oath only really made sense if you had spent a significant amount of time submerged in Klingon culture.
The best part though was that she wasn't even technically lying, because a photonic device with that large of a yield had to have been imported from somewhere off world. Which meant it would be completely expected for her to try and track down the source that had provided it to the Terrans and kill them.
"Two thousand darseks and I'll let you try." Nezia put forward with a smirk, likely thinking she could get an easy pay day when Rain wasn't able to.
"And how much for the trip itself if that try is successful?" Rain inquired, having gotten somewhat of a feel for the Orion woman at this point.
"Let's say." Nezia drawled. "Another four thousand darseks."
Rain's wince wasn't entirely feigned given that would be about 70% of her darsek supply.
"Two thousand darseks for the try, and five thousand Lek for the trip." Rain countered, the exchange rate putting the amount about 15% lower than Nezia's demand, though still a good five times the going rate for a normal passenger transport for two.
"You know what? Sure." Nezia agreed with an amused grin. "Long as you two don't mind sharing a cabin, that'll do."
"But we're still having our drinks first." She finished with a longing stare towards the bar. "Because it's been a fucking chore of a day."
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Stardate 29363.6 - May 13, 2352 - 01:51:00
Stardate 29363.6 - May 13, 2352 - 01:51:00
For the first starship Rain had been on, the unimaginatively named 'Deathwind' managed to surprise her on a rather unique ways.
Given its generally comparable length to the hundred or so meter Birds of Prey, Raine had been expecting a comparably cramped interior to what she'd seen in cutouts of those same Klingon vessel types. But she'd apparently failed to take into account the fact the Orions actually used most of that length of the ship's hull instead of dedicating a good portion of it to a thin neck.
Unfortunately the walk from the vessel's boarding ramp to its bridge confirmed Keiko's early guess about them being slavers, as passing through the vessel's cargo bay highlighted the secured forms of seven humans, six half-humans, and what Rain was pretty sure was a Vulcan woman who looked like she'd been rather heavily drugged.
Horrible as that was however, the Asari had realized in pretty much her first couple months in the mirror universe that even trying to save people in circumstances like that was likely to end up with her either sharing their fate or worse.
"We've been ready to go since this morning." Nezia offered with an annoyed glare at the lazy looking trio of Orions manning the bridge as they entered. "But there's not much you can do other than go out for drinks with the Klingons like this."
"Comm panel's over there." She continued pointing towards a station towards the back where a short looking Orion woman was sitting with her feet up. "Oria'll set up the channel for you."
Assuming the other Orion must be Oria, Rain gave Nezia a nod of acknowledgement before walking over to the station as the Orion captain leaned up against the nearby wall with an expectant look on her face.
"Hey." She began. "I'll need you to–"
"Already know." Oria interrupted as she leaned forward and pressed a quick series of controls. "Standard voice setup."
Hiding her confusion over just when Nezia had had the time to call ahead, Rain took a couple steps closer to the station, readying herself as she did for exactly the type of tone this would require.
"Deathwind to port control, this is Raine of house Palkar, identity code loSmaH Soch javmaH Hut vagh, demanding immediate launch clearance to hunt down the p'taq's that provided the Terrans the bomb that killed the head of my house." Rain ordered using her best impression of T'ahan in imperious matriarch mode.
"Identity code confirmed." A Klingon voice returned after a moment. "But we–"
"Know that every tup you delay me is a tup the trail goes colder." Rain interrupted with a growl, as was the proper Klingon way of doing things in situations like this. "And if I have to go to control to have it done, I will not be leaving until my blade has first been lodged in the stomachs of those there responsible."
She could all but imagine the argument that was going on in port control right now, but there was sure to be someone there who had dealt with things on that level before that would inform the others that under the circumstances she would get in almost no trouble for actually following through with her threat.
"You're cleared to depart Deathwind." An older Klingon voice announced nearly a minute later. "May you find success on your hunt."
With that the com channel closed, and Rain turned a smug grin to Captain Nezia, who had an almost bemused look on her face as she stared at the Asari.
"Gotta admit." Nezia offered after a moment. "Didn't expect you to actually have the pull for it. But as long as you have the currency I'm a woman of my word."
The Orion woman held her hand out expectantly at that, and with a sigh Rain pulled out one of the five thousand Lek digital fobs she had taken to carrying around instead of hard currency.
"Password for that one is Lord of the Blings, in Ferengi." Rain told her, brushing off the judgmental look a few of the other Orions shot her.
Nezia took the fob over to what Rain suspected was a secure data port, before inserting and tapping in the password.
"Checks out." She said before turning to give a nod to a tall bald Orion man. "Beld, take em to the guest quarters."
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The guest quarters turned out to be a small almost walk-in closet sized room with a pair of bunks set into the wall, which was more or less what Rain had expected going into this.
"Enjoy the accommodations princess." Beld said in a somewhat mocking tone as he watched the pair of them looking around the room from the doorway. "It's a three day trip home, so hope you brought snacks, cause food's extra."
With that he walked off, the door shutting automatically behind him moments after.
"Don't worry." Rain told Keiko upon noticing the concerned look on the woman's face as she stared at the door. "I have two weeks of Klingon emergency rations in my bag. Which is like a month's worth of food for normal people."
"He's going to come after us." Keiko offered in response, keeping her eyes fixed on the door as if it might open any moment to reveal a horde of swarthy shirtless Orions with iron cutlasses in hand.
"Come after us?" Rain repeated in a skeptical tone as she banished that oddly attractive image to the dark recesses of her mind.
"You're hot." Keiko said simply as she sat down on the lower bunk.
Rain stared at Keiko, taken aback by the suddenly frank admittance as she desperately tried to avoid thinking back to the numerous times she had seen the Japanese woman nearly naked the past two days.
"And he was staring at you like it was just a matter of time till he could fuck you." Keiko continued, the abrupt swing back enough to leave Rain whimpering slightly in realization that her previous tactic of burying those sorts of feelings under distraction had likely hit its inevitable end.
"I'm sure it'll be fine." Rain absentmindedly reassured her.
"You have all the weapons." Keiko said with a glance towards the bag Rain was carrying.
Sighing, Rain reached over her back and pulled the katana and scabbard off from where she'd been carrying it before tossing it to the former ninja.
Annoying as it was to give the weapon up, it was either that or the dagger Jel'ang had given her for weapons that she knew her barrier would stop, and she'd rather risk losing the katana then that.
"This was the waka-gashira's." Keiko murmered as she partially pulled the weapon out of its sheath to examine it.
"You can tell just by looking?" Rain asked in surprise, the weapon having looked surprisingly generic to the Asari's untrained eye when she'd examined it after the incident with the ninja that had broken into her room.
"Micro-etching on the Habaki." Keiko answered simply as she returned the weapon to its sheath with a small click.
An awkward silence settled over the small room, and Rain began shifting her weight from foot to foot to fight back the soreness she could feel coming on.
"So…" She put forward to try and fill the silence with something. "I guess you want to be the bottom then?"
"On the bottom bunk I mean." She quickly corrected while blushing brightly in embarrassment at her freudian slip.
"I usually am." Keiko returned after a moment as she began removing the slightly too large Klingon boots Rain had loaned her.
The fact that the Asari couldn't tell which of her statements Keiko was answering, or if she had even caught the slip at all, was likely going to torment Rain's dreams in ways she really didn't want to think about right now given it hadn't even been two days since Keiko had tried to kill her.
Which wasn't nearly the cold shower to Rain's hormones that she felt it really should have been, and she was beginning to suspect her tastes might have become a bit warped after going through puberty in the mirror universe.
With that cheery thought in mind she walked over to the bunks and pulled off the bag she'd been carrying before shoving it up into the upper bunk and kicking off her own boots.
"I'm going to lay down." She told Keiko as she climbed up to her bunk for the trip. "If Beld comes back and tries anything, feel free to stab him, but try and make it non-lethal, cause the last thing we need is to piss off the rest of the ship."
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Author's Notes: Bad Rain, no horny.
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- Location
- England
Iunno, I'm pretty sure I can imagine it was named 'Deathwind'. Maybe you meant 'unimaginatively'?
But Romulan warbirds need the long thin neck to look sexy!
Pretty sure the reference was to the Klingon B'rel class Bird of Prey not a flavor of similarly sized but very differently shaped Romulan T'lis class Warbird.
Darkened Stars - Chapter 13
- Location
- Oblivion
Darkened Stars - Chapter 13
Stardate 29364.0 - May 13, 2352 - 05:22:00
Stardate 29364.0 - May 13, 2352 - 05:22:00
Keiko leaned over the table wearing only an apron and smile as she sliced the freshly baked apple pie into slices with a mek'leth.
Carefully pulling out a slice, she offered it to Rain, and the smell of freshly baked apples filled her nose as she reached forward to take it. The moment she did however Keiko's expression became impish and the other woman reached forward and pinched her on the upper part of her breast.
"Yeowch!" Rain yelled, sitting up with a start at the sudden pain only to hit her crest on the roof of the bunk.
"Owe owe owe." She muttered rubbing her head in pain as she looked around to see Keiko looking over at her with a less than amused stare.
"Weapons, fast." Keiko said, switching her look to the bag Rain had been using as a pillow. "More will come soon."
"More?" Rain asked in confusion, the drowsiness of sleep still gnawing at her.
Keiko pointed with her sword down to the bodies of two dead Orions laying on the floor of their cabin.
"They pumped neurozine gas into the cabin." She quickly explained as Rain stared in wide eyed shock at the dead forms.
Now that Keiko mentioned it, there was a clear smell of baked apples in the room, which all but immediately made her mind flash back to–
She slapped herself, interrupting that train of thought before it could get going and using the sudden spike of pain to help wipe away the last dregs of tiredness from her system.
"Why aren't you unconscious?" Rain asked as she checked her disruptor, making sure the weapon wasn't on a setting that would risk burning through the hull.
"Respiratory implant to filter out harmful chemicals." Keiko answered with an impatient look towards the still open door.
"Here." Rain said, tossing the Japanese woman one of the nano-pulse weapons from her bag.
"What?" She asked rhetorically upon seeing Keiko's frown at the weapon. "We literally only had two disruptors in the house, and your friends cut mine apart."
And it wasn't like she could have just gone down to the local armory to pick up a new one with all the questions various people had to have been asking about her little rampage.
"Okay. So did they say anything before you kataned them?" Rain asked Keiko with a look towards the pair of dead Orions as she hopped down off the bunk.
"Betting each other how much they would get for us on the Orion flesh markets." Keiko said, taking the opportunity to spit on one of the bodies.
"Stupid Rain." Rain muttered to herself as she slapped a palm to her crest. "Idiots like this are why you're supposed to pay half in advance and the other half on delivery."
"Probably would have done it anyways." Keiko offered consolingly as she kicked the bodies a few times for good measure before turning back to the Asari with a somewhat lost look in her eyes. "But what now?"
Rain covered up her immediate urge to exclaim how she had thought Keiko had a plan by scrunching up her brow in consideration as her mind raced to figure out how to get out of this without being spaced by whatever random extra the Orions had manning the transporter controls.
"We'll have to rush the bridge." She voiced the first thought that came to mind and then continued to run with it. "They probably won't be expecting it given we're both supposed to be out cold."
Keiko nodded, and Rain waited a moment for her to go before rolling her eyes and taking the lead when it became clear the Japanese teen was expecting her to head the attack.
"I feel like I should have been counting heads when we were shown around earlier." Rain muttered as she made sure her barrier was active and then stuck her head out of the doorway.
"They had a crew of sixteen, so forteen left." Keiko offered helpfully as Rain's eyeridge twitched slightly at having her inadequacies once more directly thrust in her face.
Confirming the hall was empty, Rain moved out of their temporary quarters and began following the branching corridors towards the bridge, making sure as she did to clamp down hard on her go to biotic reactions to avoid any possibility of accidentally causing a hull breach or blowing up the ship.
"Where is everybody?" She muttered nervously as they neared the turbolift without running into even a single Orion.
"Probably mid shift." Keiko put forward.
That made sense, and Raine had to fight back her sudden urge to facepalm for forgetting it was usually a thing people serving on starships did so they could always have a group actively monitoring and taking care of things.
With that Rain held her breath and tapped the control for the turbolift, praying silently as she did that the lack of any noticeable alert meant the people on the bridge weren't actively monitoring the ships internal sensors.
She let out the breath as the turbolift doors opened moments later revealing an empty interior, and after a moment of hesitation made her way inside.
"Bridge." Rain said the moment Keiko joined her, holding her disruptor at the ready and tensing her muscles so she'd be ready to move the moment the turbolift arrived.
They came to a stop, the doors sliding open as Rain dashed forward ready to fight through fire, only to stop dumbfounded at the fact that literally nobody was paying any attention to their arrival.
"About time." Nezia said, not even looking back from where she was lazily lying across the arms of her captain's chair. "The two weren't heavy were they?"
"You really are just fucking dumbasses aren't you." Rain said in exasperation as she pointed the disruptor at the Orion captain.
All four of the Orions on the bridge turned at her voice with surprised looks on their faces that quickly morphed into alarm as they saw her weapon.
"Suffice it to say if any of you go for your weapons I will shoot Nezia." Rain informed the four, feeling it needed to be said even though she didn't see anything more dangerous than a bevy of different bladed weapons on the group.
Nezia rapidly paled as a trio of matching grins found their way onto the other three's faces. Which was the point all three began reaching for their weapons.
Rain fired and Nezia went down stunned as the other three attempted to rush her in a way that might have been moderately concerning if she were still a human.
Keiko dashed forward and Rain was left to blink dumbly as the Japanese woman's katana sliced through the metal of one of the Orion's saber like weapons like it wasn't even there.
Two barely detectable impacts hit her barrier, turning her attention away from the weapon that was apparently a lot more impressive then she had thought, to the other two Orion who were staring in confusion at the shimmering field of biotic energy that had stopped their weapons.
Taking advantage of their shock, she turned her disruptor on the pair, the weapon discharging twice at the pull off her finger to send the pair collapsing to the floor unconscious.
Turning back to Keiko, she openly cringed at the bloody sight that greeted her before turning her eyes away from cut up pieces that had been an Orion to put on a faux smile as she looked the Japanese teen in the eyes.
"Good work." She praised her, knowing how important positive reinforcement could be in situations like this.
"Good sword." Keiko returned, staring at the bloody weapon with a small smile on her face that slowly morphed into a frown as she looked at the three still breathing Orions. "You wanted them alive?"
"I wanted some of them alive." Rain corrected with a smirk. "Unless you know how to fly an Orion starship?"
Because while she might recognize a few of the controls she'd seen on the bridge from things she'd picked up over them years, she very much doubted her ability to actually fly the ship anywhere.
"Can't you just take it from her head?" Keiko inquired in a confused tone as she pointed over at Nezia.
Rain opened her mouth to say no only to close it with a click as she remembered that technically was something she should be able to do now.
"Would you believe I forgot?" She offered lamely as she rubbed the back of her neck in embarrassment.
"Here." She said tossing the disruptor to Keiko. "Go stun the rest of the crew, and I don't know, stick them in the slave cells or something."
Worst came to worst they could sell them to someone, not something Rain would feel particularly bad about given they had been in the process of doing that to others. Though the Asari rather hoped at least a few would take her up on the eventual offer of continued employment, since she really didn't want to be running the ship alone.
"And the slaves?" Keiko inquired.
"Take an accounting of their skills." Rain ordered, figuring there was probably someone in there with useful knowhow. "I'll go over it later and offer anyone useful a job, the rest we'll drop off somewhere."
Keiko nodded before heading to the still open doors of the turbolift, leaving Rain to walk over to the captain and stare down on her with a frown on her face.
"This is probably going to be more embarrassing for me than it is for you." She said as she began maneuvering the woman's unconscious body in such a way as they could share a seat.
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One of the most important things Keiko's grandmother had taught her was to follow power. It was why, prior to his death while slipping a worm into the Palkar house's internal systems, that she had been rather successfully working her way into Fusajiro Yamaguchi's futon.
Because he had been the up and coming power in the Yamaguchi family.
It was also why she had taken one look at the blast crater that had been her home, and decided that following the psychic murder princess that claimed to have a way to get off world and away from anyone who might want to silence potential loose ends, was her best chance of coming out alive in this.
Something made easier by the fact Keiko had caught Raine giving her appreciative looks when she thought the Japanese woman wasn't looking. Which meant the shared futon play would still be an option, even if the target of it most likely had different parts. Something which she wasn't that broken up about given the blue woman was nearly as hot as Fusajiro had been.
Though she was going to miss the rock hard abs.
She paused in her thoughts as she came to what the ships deck plan had said was the mess hall. Readying the loaned energy weapon, she tapped the door controls, waiting patiently as it opened before peering carefully around the corner of the doorway. Only to let out an annoyed sigh at the pair of passed out Orion's sitting next to a bottle of some kind of alcohol.
Pulling the trigger twice, she stunned the pair even though they were already unconscious, having encountered more than enough suddenly awake and alert drunks in her time to know the risks of the pair waking while she was dealing with the rest of the vessels layabout crew.
That done, she moved to secure them with the shackles she had discovered in one of the store-rooms. A lucky, though not entirely unexpected, find all things considered given they meant that she could take her time and do things properly.
With the four that had been asleep in their bunks, the two who had been fucking each other in engineering, and now this pair, that just left the last two to find. Given the process of elimination that had been her search so far however, she was pretty sure she would find them guarding the slave pens.
Finishing with the last of the two, she began making her way down to the cargo bay, a thankfully short trip made a tiny bit longer by the fact she was choosing to use the maintenance shafts to go between decks instead of the single lift.
The large interior doors that would take her from the ship proper to the cargo bay were in the same state of being open as they had been when they had walked through earlier. A stupid thing to do for multiple reasons, but one that made things eminently easier for her to sneak through since she doubted the large secure looking structures would open anywhere near as quietly as the other doors had.
Hugging the wall to avoid direct line of sight from those inside, she stuck her head out to take a quick peek through the open double doors. The lines of slave pens were blocking her line of sight to the left and right of the doorway, but thankfully the pair she was looking for had decided they wanted to be in the center of the room, as she was able to spot them playing a card game of some kind.
Flicking her eyes to the two's hips, she was glad to see they too lacked any proper energy weapons, something she was coming to suspect had been more out of the captain's rightful paranoia that her crew would try to use them on her then anything else.
That didn't mean they weren't armed however, as she spied a pair of neural truncheons on their belts. Though she suspected those were more for controlling potentially rowdy slaves than actually fighting off determined boarders.
Holding her breath and tensing her legs to begin moving, she lined up a shot on one of the pair before pulling the trigger, letting out her breath and dashing into the room at the same moment the shot downed him.
The other Orion, one she recognized now as Beld, just stared dumbly as the man across from him went down, and with an annoyed growl at the sheer amount of incompetence at play she fired again, the green bolt sending him to join his friend in unconsciousness.
"He should have knocked over the table and used it as cover." She muttered in disdain as she finished her trek into the room to follow up on the second half of her orders.
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Author's Notes: Sometimes dumb criminals are just dumb criminals, aka that moment when you realize you're two level 10 characters running through a CR 2 encounter.
And yes, Keiko knows a bit more about what was going on then she's admitted to Rain.
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Qoheleth
Archivist
- Pronouns
- Any
And all of a sudden, this little snippet from the other thread gets some lovely extra undertones to it:
- Location
- England
Oh, a twofer. Spurious apostrophe, and it should be "boarders". 'borders' are what you find around countries on maps.
Lolll I was thinking the same thingAnd all of a sudden, this little snippet from the other thread gets some lovely extra undertones to it:
- Location
- Oblivion
And all of a sudden, this little snippet from the other thread gets some lovely extra undertones to it:
I was wondering if people would catch that.
Yup, Mirror Keiko has a type.
Rock Hard Abs!
Well Mirror Keiko, don't worry your version is still young and hasn't gone soft yet so you can probably get her to the rock hard abs stage for at least a decade before her job as queen starts to soften her up again. Also of COURSE threatening to shoot the captain if they moved had them moving. That was as amusing as it was predictable.
All in all a really fun chapter. And hey, this ship comes complete with proper brig facilities capable of holding the entire crew AND a backup crew just in case Raine goofs upsex reading the captain's mind.
And yes far more embarrassing for the one who's conscious for it and understands the cultural and biological connotations of the act.
Well Mirror Keiko, don't worry your version is still young and hasn't gone soft yet so you can probably get her to the rock hard abs stage for at least a decade before her job as queen starts to soften her up again. Also of COURSE threatening to shoot the captain if they moved had them moving. That was as amusing as it was predictable.
All in all a really fun chapter. And hey, this ship comes complete with proper brig facilities capable of holding the entire crew AND a backup crew just in case Raine goofs up
And yes far more embarrassing for the one who's conscious for it and understands the cultural and biological connotations of the act.
Darkened Stars - Chapter 14
- Location
- Oblivion
Darkened Stars - Chapter 14
Stardate 29364.1 - May 13, 2352 - 06:15:00
Stardate 29364.1 - May 13, 2352 - 06:15:00
Looking down at the unconscious Orion captain, Rain couldn't help but wonder if she might have been mistaken to use the claim of melding as a threat against Keiko. Because she had only the barest inkling of an idea about how to even go about it.
But it was too late to back track on that now lest she lose the image she was building up, so she'd have to at least try, and hope desperately that she wouldn't explode the captains head by accident.
"Let's start simple then." She muttered to herself as she grabbed the captain's head in her hands. "Embrace Eternity!"
A moment of literally nothing happening passed.
"Yea…" Rain admitted, feeling oddly embarrassed about that even though it was just her and the three unconscious people on the bridge. "I didn't really think that was going to work, but when in doubt, work through the list."
The annoying part of this as far as Rain was concerned was that it shouldn't be that hard to figure out, since if it was the Asari surely would have gone extinct long before reaching the point of being a space faring species.
"I swear to god if I have to get horny for this to work I'm going to kidnap Smiley, have him invent a multidimensional transporter, and hunt down the mass effect developers to stick my blue foot so far up their asses they'll be tasting nail polish."
Which was honestly one of her big fears in all this, not that it would be a particularly hard thing to accomplish with her current circumstances given green skinned space babes had always done it for her, but that was the type of embarrassing requirement that would follow her for the rest of her very long life.
But she thankfully still had other things on the list to try before resorting to that.
"Okay." She said to still unconscious Nezia as she continued to hold her head. "This is one of the options that might explode your head, so sorry in advance if that happens."
With that, Rain focused in on herself, before attempting to reach out towards the Orion with the same sense she used to help direct the dark energy that was the heart of her biotic abilities.
Nezia's head didn't immediately explode, so that was a plus, unfortunately however she didn't find herself reliving the Orion woman's memories either, though oddly there was an impression of something the Asari didn't quite have words for, that made her feel like she might be on the right track.
So she focused on that feeling, following it through an almost water like blackness to a single point of–
Thousand gods she hated Terra, the planets air smelled like old gym socks, the entertainment feeds were functionally non-existent, the Alliance always wanted to perform full cargo inspections to make sure she wasn't smuggling weapons to the Terran resistance, and worst of all it was full of Terrans whose only worthwhile point was that they sold for a moderately high price on the flesh markets.
The only good part was the Klingons made it oh so easy to get your hands on product so long as you knew what palm to lubricate, and Nezia absolutely did.
"You got your hands on a Vulcan?" She asked as she followed Krell through the cell block. The Klingon prison overseer one of her more frequent sources of profit since that troublesome rebellion had kicked off on the planet's eastern continent.
"We caught her father trying to smuggle weapons to the Terrans." Krell confirmed with a smirk as they came to a cell inside of which she could see a near naked heavily shackled woman with tanned skin, short cut hair, and subtly pointed ears. "The rest of the ship's crew was already executed, but knowing you were on your way I delayed things with this one."
"Looks a bit banged up." She said as she looked over the Vulcan woman's body, taking special note of the blotchy dark green bruises covering her body. "She a fighter?"
"Aren't they always?" Krell returned with a barking laugh.
"Means it'll be more work for us." She hedged with a speculative glance around the cell-block to disguise the naked interest in her eyes. "I'll give you five hundred darsek for her."
"A Vulcan female of her age?" Krell scoffed. "She's worth a hundred times that on the markets."
"Her age? What is she, sixty? Eighty?" Nezia asked, never having been particularly good at judging Vulcan ages.
"Try thirty three." Krell informed her with a grin. "And with the way Vulcans age that's maybe another forty to sixty years of use to her."
With the Vulcans looks she'd say more like eighty to a hundred, but he didn't need to know that. "I'll give you a thousand."
"Five thousand." He countered.
"Fifteen hundred." She put forward.
"I said five thousand and I meant five thousand." Krell repeated with a growl. "With the Terran attacks of late I'll be taking an actual risk disappearing this one."
That was annoying, unless she got lucky at the markets she'd barely be able to double her money after everyone else took their cuts. And that was before she factored in transport costs. But with everything else going on on his cursed planet it wasn't like her holds were bursting full.
"All right, five thousand."
"Then she is yours." Krell said with a nod as he pulled the cell's remote off this belt and flicked the control causing the duranium bars to slide apart.
"You hear that T'lynn?" He continued smugly as he walked into the cell and grabbed the Vulcan woman by the arm before pulling her to her feet. "It looks like you–
Rain blinked, staring dumbly down at the D'k Tahg dagger she had apparently just plunged into the Orion captain's heart.
"Well fuck."
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Looking around at those she'd let out of the cargobay's slave pens, it wasn't hard for Keiko to tell what the Orion's had been selecting for with their choice of people. Because to a one they all had the overly attractive look of those she'd otherwise expect to see walking out of an underground image clinic.
"So does anyone here know how to do things?"
Thirteen hands went up, the only exception the Vulcan woman who looked like she could barely keep herself upright.
"Useful things." Keiko clarified upon realizing her mistake. "With ships."
When none of the hands went down she narrowed her eyes and added in what her sensei liked to call an honesty incentive.
"If you're lying I'll stab you."
All but two hands went down, a much more reasonable number made all the more believable to Keiko by the fact the two in question looked to be a pair of half Cardassian twins of indeterminate gender.
"Good." She said with a nod. "You two come with me. The rest of you go around and drag the Orions I stunned into the pens. Four in crew quarters, two in engineering, and two in mess hall."
"But–" One of the humans began hesitantly.
"Go." Keiko ordered pointing to the still open door, unsure why anyone in their uncertain circumstances would hesitate to prove themselves useful given for all they know it was the only thing keeping them alive.
They went, thankfully able to read the room, because Keiko wasn't exactly sure just how far she was supposed to go with forcing them into line since whatever Raine's plan was, it seemed to want them still alive.
That just left her, the two Cardassians, and…
"I thought I said to go?" She asked the Vulcan woman in confusion.
"I… Know ships…" The Vulcan woman told her in a slow and deliberate tone that suggested she was working overtime to push through whatever haze the Orion's drugs had affected her with. "Grew up… Helping my father… Run his freighter…"
That might be useful if true, but everything Keiko had heard about Vulcans said they were consummate liars that couldn't be trusted. Though in this particular case she supposed the woman might make a useful example for the others if it turned out she was.
"All right." She said, turning to the door and starting to walk, making sure to keep her hand on her weapon just in case one of them decided to try their luck. "Follow me."
Three sets of footsteps began following her only for her trek to be interrupted before she could even make it the dozen or so steps by the sound of a heavy thud that had her whip around weapon at the ready, only to lower it with a sigh upon seeing the Vulcan woman face down on the ground having apparently collapsed.
"You two carry her." She told the twins, motioning with the barrel of her loaned disruptor to the Vulcan woman who was feebily trying to push herself back up to her feet.
The one that Keiko was pretty sure at this point was a male bent over and helped the Vulcan woman back to her feet, attempting to position one of the Vulcans arms over his shoulder as he did.
"It's… All right… I can walk…" The vulcan tried to reassure them, her claims easily refuted by the way Keiko could see her leaning against the man.
"What did they have you on?" Keiko asked with a frown, knowing from what she'd seen others go through that there could be problematic side effects from such things.
"Makes me weak." The Vulcan woman said, the lack of any real answer not entirely unexpected given her circumstances.
"Probably a combination of muscle relaxants and something to dull her emotional responses." The other half-cardassian offered in a feminine voice that left Keiko judging her as a woman.
Keiko shot the half-cardassian woman a suspicious stare, the guess oddly specific given how little the Vulcan woman had mentioned.
"We worked inspections on Cardek-Nor." The half-cardassian defended as her brother turned his head away. "Any time the Orions brought a Vulcan through you'd see them drugged up on something like that."
There was probably a story there, but Keiko didn't particularly care outside of the fact that it meant they would probably know the best ways to dodge Cardassian inspections if it came down to it.
"Follow me." She said again as she began walking towards the lift.
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Rain wasn't particularly upset about killing Nezia given how generally horrible of a person the Asari's brief glimpses of the Orion woman's life had shown her to have been. Though the fact that she had done so while in the middle of reliving said woman's memories was more than a bit worrisome given what it probably said about her state of mind.
On the upside of having to experience the world through the eyes of an unrepentant monster however, she was pretty sure she now knew the generalities of flying this particular starship given a brief glance around the bridge told her the various controls that she hadn't recognized before now held an air of familiarity.
The sound of the turbolift door opening turned her attention over to the door at the rear of the bridge, and she let out an audible sigh of relief upon seeing Keiko exit.
"I take it you…" Rain began, only to trail off blinking owlishly at the pair of nearly identical half-cardassians that looked like they belonged on the cover of a J-Pop magazine propping up a vaguely recognizable and nearly insensate vulcan woman that followed after her.
"They're the ones that say they know ships." Keiko offered with a jerk of her head towards the three.
"Is she okay?" Rain asked with a concerned look to the Vulcan woman who had a startling resemblance to the actress she recalled voicing T'lyn on Lower Decks.
"Probably." Keiko offered after considering the question for a moment. "Might be a problem when the drugs wear off though."
"You can give her a shot of the purple stuff to minimize the chances of a psychotic break." Rain responded almost automatically as Nezia's still fresh memory hit her.
"Purple stuff?" Keiko questioned with an almost hesitant glance over to the dead captain.
"I'll have to show you later." Rain admitted with a grimace as she tried to shove down the unwanted associations that rose up those bits of memory before turning to the two half-cardassians. "Do either of you know how long it's been since they last dosed her?"
"About an hour before you followed the former captain up." The male of the pair answered cautiously after following the line of Keiko's eyes to the body.
"Then it should be fine for a while." Rain told them, the vague sense of 'lasts for days' floating around prominently in her head.
"Is there any chance one of you is pilot qualified?" She continued to the pair as a thought began niggling at her.
"We're both qualified on Alliance standard impulse craft." The female confessed after exchanging a look with her twin.
"Close enough to learn." Rain admitted, hiding her relief as she started walking over to the helm. "Prop T'lyn in a corner, and I'll show you what you need to know to keep us from slamming into a planet."
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Author's Notes: Not exactly the most auspicious start to her career as a roving space princess, but you make do with what you have.
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- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hijacking another pirate's ride is a time honoured tradition for new pirates leanring the ropes!
- Pronouns
- She/Her
i mean, T'lyn is right there.
As an aside I worry for T'lyn given she wasn't in the Cerulean Stars crossover in the future
hance1986
The One Above All.
' feet '
' Rain's '
' feebly '
Mirror Universe Asari is Rain( the SI's real name?) while Starfleet Asari is Raine(Admiral Brooks as a parent and infinitely more stable Federation infrastructure and society allowed Raine Brooks to lean more female presenting while Rain future Tendi on her own is more monogender until later becoming Queen Tendi and female internally?)
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Darkened Stars - Chapter 15
New
- Location
- Oblivion
Darkened Stars - Chapter 15
Stardate 29364.2 - May 13, 2352 - 07:07:00
Stardate 29364.2 - May 13, 2352 - 07:07:00
The thing about flying by the seat of your pants was that eventually you ran out of extra pairs and were left mooning everyone around you, or at least, that was vaguely how Rain remembered the saying going.
Accurate or not, it at least worked for describing her current circumstances given the original plan for this impromptu trip hadn't really involved much of anything past making her way to a planet that wasn't Terra.
Mainly because her skills were so eclectic she wasn't exactly sure just what sort of job she should be looking for. And she was almost visceral against justifying the bad writing that had pegged so many young Asari as strippers or mercenaries.
Though of course, that was all now secondary to the fact that she was functionally in the middle of pirating a starship with a number of things she'd really rather not dwell on rattling around in her brain.
Which was why she was currently hiding out in the bridge bathroom staring at her own face in the mirror, an act that while helping to center herself away from Nezia's memories, was unfortunately causing her a number of extraordinarily conflicted feelings.
"God I'm hot." Rain muttered to herself at the stark reminder of just why she tried to avoid looking into mirrors as much as possible nowadays.
"Why couldn't I have been dropped in the prime universe instead, I could have scanned myself on the holodeck and rocked my own world."
A tiny niggling part of her brain chose that moment to suggest she could look even hotter with eyebrow stenciling, a little eyeliner, and some violet lipstick.
Something that left her blinking dumbly into the mirror for nearly a full minute before slapping herself across the face hard enough to leave her cheek stinging.
"Stupid Nezia memories." She groused as she grabbed onto the sides of the sink and glared at herself in the mirror. "I only wanted to know how to run the ship, not experience a clipshow of your greatest shitty acts, learn a language, and gain a minor degree in cosmetology."
She hung her head and let out a sigh, knowing it was far too late at this point for recriminations about that particular boneheaded choice.
"So think Rain, what do you have?" She asked herself as she finally tried to organize the various pieces available to her into something resembling a solvable puzzle. "A ship that's probably not in the best of shape, a moderately competent questionably loyal ninja, slaves previously destined for the flesh markets with variable levels of skills, a cargo hold full of surely Orion slavers, and whatever loot might be stashed around the ship."
Pragmatically speaking her best option for long term survival would probably be to sell the Orions and all the slaves that didn't have useful skill sets. But while she didn't have any particular moral qualms at the idea of selling the Orions given they had been doing the same to others, as far as she knew the slaves had been a combination of inconveniences in need of disposal and whatever attractive enough prisoners the Klingon authorities had been willing to lose track of.
And that meant she'd probably feel bad about it, even if they had been put in prison by the Klignons for good reasons. Though, she should probably check the purchase records just to be absolutely sure since this was the mirror universe where horrible people seemed to be the standard.
"So plan with the captured Orion's as the resource base." She told herself with a nod.
The average going price for an Orion in the twenty to fifty year age range was between forty to eighty thousand darsek, depending heavily on where you tried to sell them. Which meant the thirteen Orion's they had would translate to somewhere between five hundred thousand to a million darsek.
A fact Rain hated that she now knew, no matter how helpful it was sure to prove in setting her up with seed money. Of course, that left her with the question of where to actually try and sell them. Orion was right out, as there were just too many risks inherent in taking this particular ship and trying to sell its crew there.
Unfortunately that seemed to have been the only place Nezia had sold slaves, or at least, the only memories of selling slaves that Rain had been able to get from her. As the only other place she could think of was Risa, a location she had mapped during her escape planning as somewhere to avoid due to the mirror universe Risian's being more of the Roman style of hedonists then their 'let us service you with a smile' prime universe counterparts.
"If I'm not planning on staying there long myself though." She mused in consideration as the sound of the door opening dragged her out of her own head.
"Salora wanted me to tell you we're nearing the Andorian quarantine zone." Keiko's warned from the other side of the now open doorway. "Whatever that is."
"When Emperor Spock started transitioning to a Republic and carrying out a staggered reduction of its military forces the Andorians grabbed what they could and began turtling up in their home system." Rain explained as she took a couple steps over to the door and made a shooing motion to clear the Japanese woman out of the way.
"By the time the Alliance invaded it was a choice between the Andorian system or the Terran system, they chose the obvious, and when the Andorians didn't send even a single ship to try and help out, the Alliance decided they could live with ignoring the issue so just blockaded the system and called it a day."
"Spock was an idiot." Keiko said as Rain walked past and made her way over to the helm.
"How far are we away from the blockade?" Rain asked the female twin who had taken the seat.
"Fifty million kilometers." Salora offered as she looked down at the controls. "I think."
"You think?" Rain repeated, shooting the woman a confused glance as she followed the half-cardassians gaze to the controls to confirm that the navigation computer was showing them at roughly that distance from the quarantine line and nearing via a shallow approach.
"My Klingon is limited." Salora confessed apologetically, leaning slightly away from Rain as if in anticipation of something as she did. "But the computer only had Orion, Naussican, and Klingon in its translation files."
Rain felt like smacking herself, having completely forgotten the language issue could be an actual issue given the uniqueness of universal translators.
"Just do your best." Rain told her as she reached over and patted the woman on the shoulder supportively.
"I take it you're fluent in Cardassian and Terran?" She inquired as she added purchasing a Terran interface translation matrix to her mental list of things needing to be done.
"Cardassian more than Terran." Salora confirmed as she relaxed slightly, only to all but immediately tense up again as something on the console started blinking.
"Something's on an intercept course." She informed Rain after a moment.
"That sentence translates to 'class six drive with encrypted transponder'. "Rain explained helpfully as she leaned down to look over what the sensor readout was saying.
"A class six usually means something cruiser sized or up." Salora added in.
"Good to know." Rain returned, having honestly had no idea, something that must have shown on her face given the additional information the half-cardassian had decided to offer.
"Given where we are we're probably looking at either an Alliance blockade ship or–
An almost tonal scale began echoing out across the bridge before Rain could finish, and she had to wrack her memory a moment before a vague recollection hit her.
"Incoming com signal." She explained as she walked over to the captain's chair, flopping down into the surprisingly comfortable piece of furniture before searching the arm rest for the blinking control she knew should be there.
Tapping it, she looked towards the front of the bridge only to blink at the annoyed looking Cardadassian Gul that appeared on screen.
"Orion vessel Deathwind, drop out of warp and prepare for…"
He paused, his eyes flicking from her fins, to her face, and finally settling on the set of Klingon armor that made up Rain's only real set of clothing.
"Who are you?" He demanded as his eyes momentarily flicked to something off screen. "And where is Captain Tendi?"
"Raine, of house Palkar." She introduced herself, almost sure that the Cardassian Gul would have access to her records so as to confirm her claim. "And Captain Tendi suffered a sudden case of my d'k tahg finding its way into her heart after she broke her guarantee of safe passage and tried to take me as a slave."
Close enough to be technically true, though the guarantee was more an implicit part of her paying for passage in the first place.
"As such I took her life and seized her holdings as is my right under Klingon law."
The Gul frowned at that, hitting a button on his arm rest that visibly muted the communications channel before he began to talk to someone off screen.
Rain leaned back in her chair and sighed, tapping her fingernails on the armrest as she waited for him to finish whatever discussion about their ship they apparently needed to have.
After nearly five minutes of this he turned back, and the screen unmuted.
"We've confirmed your identity." The Gul stated, sounding almost disappointed at the fact. "Be aware that your vessel is less than twenty million kilometers away from the Andorian quarantine zone, which is off limits to non-military vessels."
"Understood." Rain replied, knowing better than to poke a Cardassian's pride by arguing with them.
"Salora." She continued, looking over to the half-cardassian woman who seemed to be doing her level best to shrink into her chair. "Alter our course to take us to Risa, and make sure it keeps us at least ten million kilometers from the quarantine zone."
She turned back to thank him for the warning, only to frown at the standard screensaver-like view of warp travel that instead greeted her.
"Rude." She muttered.
"He was probably annoyed that he couldn't extort you for a bribe." Salora offered in a hesitant tone.
"They can't?" Rain asked in surprise, not having heard anything about that during her time with Jel'ang.
"It's part of the Alliance's reciprocity agreements." Salora explained with a confused glance over her shoulder.
"We…" She began, only to grimace and correct herself. "They, don't go after Klingon adjacent ships for the normal tariffs and fees of doing business, and in turn the Klingons don't raid Cardassian adjacent shipping lanes."
That was useful to know on several levels, though Rain hadn't really been planning to raid any ships period given she still remembered the Reboot lesson about just how razor edge pirating profits tended to be when factoring in costs.
She frowned as a sudden thought hit her, and a quick look around the bridge confirmed it.
"What happened to the other two?" She questioned with a look over to the rear of the bridge next to the turbolift doors where the silently standing Keiko had positioned herself.
"Medbay." Keiko answered simply, reminding the Asari about what she'd forgotten in her sudden need to hide away for a half hour to try and think.
"Oh, right." Rain muttered.
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The ship's medbay was both surprisingly small and surprisingly well equipped, with a plethora of drugs and devices most of which, outside of a few exceptions, Rain didn't have even the slightest idea of their purpose.
Which was enough to add 'hire a doctor' to her ever increasing mental list of things that needed to be done now that she was the captain of an actual starship.
"Okay, so that's the purple stuff." Rain told Jarat as she pointed to a purple vial in the drug storage fridge. "Give her one milliliter now, and then repeat that again in six hours. The staggered dose allows a slower reversal which minimizes the chance she'll go temporarily crazy."
With that self reminder of a potential pitfall she turned to T'Lyn, who Jarat had laid out on one of the medbays two biobeds.
"Are you an adherent of Spock's new way?" She asked, referring to the partial resurgence of logic based vulcanism after it had been nearly wiped out by the Terran empire.
"No."
Rain waited a moment for T'Lyn to say more before turning back to Jarat with a sigh that she really hoped didn't betray how tired she actually was right now.
"Okay, so, that panel can control the biobed restraint fields." She said, pointing out a specific control panel next to where Jarat was standing. "Don't be afraid to use it if it starts looking like she's going to have a negative reaction."
"I… Would not… Hurt him…" T'Lyn objected.
A moment passed as Rain turned a suspicious look to the Vulcan woman, only to follow her gaze over to Jarat to see the half-cardassian looking down at the Vulcan woman with an obvious and caring look of concern on his face.
"Did you two know each other before this whole thing?" She asked as a sudden suspicion formed in her gut.
Jarat physically flinched at her question, before taking an almost defensive position in front of the Vulcan woman's biobed as he met Rain's eyes. The act more than answering the Asari's question for her given it all but screamed 'young fool in love'.
"You know what, never mind, don't care." She waved off before either could say anything more about the subject. "As long as you're not planning to try and kill me and take my stuff as the start of some cockamamie bonnie and clyde plan it's literally not my problem."
With that she turned and walked out, fully aware that a pair of star crossed lovers was probably the least of her worries given she still had a cargo hold full of former slaves and slavers to deal with before she could claim the captain's cabin as her own and pass out for a majorly needed night's rest.
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Author's Notes: Her first day of being a captain, and already having to deal with corrupt officials and relationship issues.
Chloe Sullivan
Subdefective
- Location
- 1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale CA
Oof, planning on selling slaves? that's a leap off the moral horizon.
Illium has the indentured servitude contracts were people can legally enslave themselves for money and supposedly be freed later? All I mostly know when you get there you can help a Quarian get out of one she signed that her employer wanted to extend to exploit her labour. So not that much of a leap more like a idk. For an E-democracy they sure are fine with Illium doing this just because it's in the Atican Traverse and not truly in Citadel Space even through the Batarians sorta are and no one has lifted a finger to stop them even when it's Asari worlds that are also raided for slaves until the Alliance came onto the scene.
But yeah she leapt of that moral horizon and landed on her feet, when in the Mirror do as they do... Mostly.
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Kylia Quilor
I Have Two Moods, and Bitter is One of Them.
- Location
- Hiding in the corner of your vision.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Illium is in the Terminus, not the Traverse, and the Citadel refuses to touch the Terminus because it's like poking a wasp hive.
I don't know, selling slavers for start up cash as slaves is basically just karmic justice. I don't think we can use the variations from ME indentured servitude or actual slavery as useful goalposts here given that isn't Rain's moral center in any case. To my mind its at least better than killing them, though that could well be justified. It also appears that the law is actually on her side for this. Klingon law at least. I admit I'm very much amused at how much mileage she's getting out of her relationship to a klingon house.
It's a nice start, lets see if she can keep it up.
Chloe Sullivan
Subdefective
- Location
- 1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale CA
"it's okay to do things to bad people" is also a form of jumping off the moral cliff. this never ends well because people are biased and always end up defining "bad people" in a way that suits their own biases.
Justice is the virtue of rendering to each man what he deserves. In a negative sense, that means an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life. And no more.
In other words, if you kidnap people and make them slaves, you don't get to complain if someone kidnaps you and makes you a slave.
Chloe Sullivan
Subdefective
- Location
- 1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale CA
if you want to quote the ancients, then learn their fucking history
CS Lewis said:
No actual culture of antiquity held justice to be absolute in this world, and near all considered mercy to be a necessary virtue tempering it.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
The written laws of such cultures was often harsh, in practice there were always many (oft unwritten) leniences, pardons, and allowances.
people who think "an eye for an eye" was actually practiced literally, in general rather than in extremis... haven't studied history.
Or, for that matter, try practicing "an eye for an eye" today, in modern society, and see how fast you get arrested.
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Why do you think I disagree with you?
I don't.
But whatsoever one chooses, one has no standing to complain if that which he has chosen is given to him.
Mercy is a grace. It is never obligatory.
- Location
- Oblivion
Can't really disagree with that.
In her mind she's telling herself it's the pragmatic choice because they're generally horrible people who tried to do it to her first. But that's really just her making excuses for the fact she's started subconsciously grouping people into "real people" and "not real people" mental boxes as a coping mechanism for all the horrible things she see's happening around her.
In fact, that's why she killed Nezia like that, when it was just the idea of the Orion making slaves of "not real people" she could tell herself that it wasn't her problem, but the moment she found out Nezia was actively doing it to someone in the "real person" box, which she automatically puts anyone from the shows in, it suddenly became a real and horrible injustice to her that demanded action.
And no, that is very much not a good thing.